The sport was so important to the country at the start of World War II that President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote what came to be called the "green light letter."

On Jan. 15, a month after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, he wrote to baseball commissioner and former federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis in Chicago.

"I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. ... Baseball provides a recreation which does not last over two hours or two hours and a half, and which can be got for very little cost.

And, incidentally, I hope that night games can be extended because it gives an opportunity to the day shift to see a game occasionally."

The leagues played, and not just against professional teams.

The Red Sox, including greats Ted Williams and Johnny Pesky, traveled to Fort Devens in June 1942.

The Fort Devens Museum will relive that game, in miniature, during a hot-stove double-header starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

The Sox were strong contenders for the pennant in 1942, with a lineup including Williams and Pesky, a young Bobby Doerr and an aging Joe Cronin, who was player-manager. Tex Hughson would win 22 games that season.

The Devens team's best hope for a good showing was no longer on base.

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Brighton-born Hugh Mulcahy was the first regular major-league player drafted into the military, in 1941, and was posted to Fort Devens.

Mulcahy was not great; he pitched for so many bottom-of-the-barrel Philadelphia Athletics teams that he led the American League in losses twice in four years.

His nickname is immortal: "Losing Pitcher."

Mulcahy was honorably discharged on Dec. 5, 1941, after 10 months of service. Two days later, America was at war.

Back in uniform, Mulcahy was sent to Camp Edwards on Cape Cod, where he pitched in the occasional charity game, including a May 1942 benefit at Fenway Park against the legendary Bob Feller.

He lost.

The Devens team fielded a few minor leaguers. Providence College grads Joe Kwasniewski, a pitcher, and light-hitting catcher Elton Deuse, were playing with the Sox team in the Middle Atlantic League before the war. Pitcher Mike "Iron Man" Kash had seven seasons of experience, second baseman Archie Horne had three.

At least Devens could claim major-league genetics. A pitcher, Steve Wood, was the son of Sox legend and Hall of Famer Smoky Joe Wood.

The soldiers were outmatched from the start. Dom DiMaggio led off with a double against Kwasniewski, and Williams homered in front of 12,000 fans. The Sox scored six in the first inning, two more in the second, and the rout was on.

The Sox pulled their starters early; they were still trying to chase down the Yankees in American League race. Kash relieved Kwasniewski, but it was too late. Devens managed 15 hits against the Sox backup pitchers, but fell 11-5.

The Sox ended the season in second place. The Devens team would go to war, then return to their lives. Kash would return to baseball, scuffling around the minors for 13 more seasons. He won 202 games, but never had his moment in the majors.

Kara Fossey, the museum's executive director, said a board member came up with the idea for the re-enactment. "It's something to do while we wait for the spring," she said. ("Hot stove league" refers to fans sitting around a hot stove and talking baseball in the off-season.)

Fossey fondly remembers visits to the museum by Nick Pyrch, who replaced Deuse in the game and had two hits, including a double.

Pyrch brought his scrapbook, including an account of the game and a picture of the 1942 team. Scans are now in the museum's archives. Pyrch played amateur baseball in Connecticut after the war, and died last month at age 98.

Saturday's game will be played on a small-scale reproduction of Fenway Park, made by Leo Gallant of Gardner. Peter Landry, from Marblehead, painted the miniature players.

Play will advance based on rules involving a deck of cards and some dice.

The Fort Devens Museum is located at 94 Jackson Road, Devens, on the third floor, and is wheelchair-accessible. This program is free but donations are appreciated.

The museum will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for the double-header on Feb. 20. All ages are welcome to attend.

The 1942 season was a temporary stopping point in the big-league careers of Ted Williams and Johnny Pesky. BaseballInWartime.com provides an overview of their military careers.

Williams enlisted in the Navy in May 1942. After the 1942 season, he studied to become a naval aviator and received his pilot's wings as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps in 1944.

During his time in the service he played charity games and for base teams. He returned to the Red Sox in 1946.

In 1952, Williams was recalled to active duty in the Korean War where he often flew as wingman for a future astronaut and senator, John Glenn.

Williams' athleticism served him well.

According to the website, Glenn said, "Once, he was on fire and had to belly land the plane back in. He slid it in on the belly. It came up the runway about 1,500 feet before he was able to jump out and run off the wingtip."

Pesky became an ensign in the U.S. Navy and played ball in Chapel Hill, Atlanta and Honolulu in the Naval District league. Like Williams, he returned to the Red Sox after three years in the military.

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